French Literature Reviews - 2026

Sally Bonn, Writing, Writing, Writing
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

The hand, my hand, wants to write. It wants to grasp the world through writing, through its tiny black marks, its arranged shapes that make sense. I cling to it. One day, I will be a writer. Even if I don't know which path to take, which line to follow, which signs to trace. That is how it all began.

Where does writing begin? In the body or in the mind? In a child's hand clenched around a pen at a desk, or in an adult's memory?

Perhaps we need to look elsewhere. Trace the footprints. Play with street graffiti. Observe the rituals of writers, those of the past (Proust, Walser, Benjamin) as well as those of today. Journey through Mesopotamia, Greece, and Egyptian myths.

Drawing on personal memories, travels, and artists' confidences, Sally Bonn in turn crafts the most sensitive trace imaginable: her book.

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An article about this work can be read on nonfiction.fr:

The inquiry into the origins of writing occupies a long tradition within literary reflection, where thinkers and practitioners examine the boundary between bodily gesture and mental conception. In works addressing the genesis of the written word, writers frequently turn to personal recollection, historical anthropology, and the physical act of inscription itself. By juxtaposing ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt with modern artistic practices, such explorations place individual creative impulses within a broad historical continuum of human communication and visual marking.

Sally Bonn examines the origins of writing, drawing on personal memories, travels, and artists' confidences, as well as observing the rituals of writers from the past and today. Readers interested in the intersection of bodily experience, artistic ritual, and the history of writing may find this volume relevant to their inquiries.

"Le parti pris d'écrire", by Maryse Emel (published online September 15, 2022).